Dateline: At Sea, South Atlantic Ocean Steaming into the
Saragossa Sea
Part One
October 31, 2007, 1400 hours
Bonjour Halloween!!
Today is our next-to-last “sea day” in which we are completely out of sight of land. What a difference 12 hours makes! We awoke this morning to 75 degree sea and air temperatures, much higher humidity, and gently rolling swells (which have been increasing all day, but more on that later). We are sitting out on our private balcony enjoying the warm sun while reading and drinking sodas. We have now covered some 3,000 miles on this voyage, and it seems like we just left Quebec City yesterday. We have seen sea and air temperatures go from right at 39 degrees F to the mid-70’s, with the 80’s promised by the time we leave the ship.
Tonight is the last “formal night” on the ship, so we will be primping later for dinner with our good friends Tim and Cindy Stockman. Other than that it is laundry day, kick back day, and of course, a four-mile run day. We (well, I can only speak for myself) have been spending WAY too much time with Jimmy (buffet), whom we introduced you all to earlier in the voyage. Jimmy just has a way of tempting bad Stevie with WAY too much in the way of porking out. So, as sort of a whining defense, whenever we are not walking on the beach, we have a rule of a “must” four mile run, which is 12 laps around the ship on the promenade deck. It was special today because of the warm sun and gentle breezes blowing across the decks. Last sea day we were running in parkas and long johns.
One of the magicians on the ship (who is an excellent entertainer by-the-way) is a HUGE Harry Houdini historian and fan, so the four of us went to listen to his special Halloween Tribute to Houdini. Being a huge Houdini fan myself, I was really stoked when Tim told us about this presentation the other night. We found out a lot of amazing stuff about Houdini, including the fact that he is the first person to ever achieve manned flight in Australia (write that one down Matt Knowles!!) and is so honored by the Aussie government and people for that feat; he did die on Halloween, and although it has never been proven, highly suspect of poisoning him were a group of “Mediums” (read the fake Séance people), who Houdini waged war with and ridiculed for a number of years before his death, and although he was the most famous person on Earth at the time (150,000 people showed up in Providence, RI to see him escape from a straight jacket once – how the Hell they could all see in that crowd without T.V. and Jumbotrons beats the shit out of me) he lost his entire fortune trying to establish a motion picture company. This magician has the best Houdini artifact collection in the world, and it was really cool to hear him speak with such passion, knowing that he is a professional illusionist himself.
Big talk on the ship right now is some sort of nasty-assed hurricane that is parked off the east coast of Florida and coming out of the Caribbean, and it is supposed to be moving up this way over the next few days. We dock in Charleston tomorrow and will be inside the Bay all day, but then we are back out at sea all day Friday before we disembark in Ft. Lauderdale Saturday morning. It just may be a coincidence, but the seas have been increasing all day, and even though the wind is only Force Six, the seas are now running 12 feet. There is a squeaky handrail going down the stairs on the 8th deck (three below us), that we have nicknamed “Squeaky Rail,” and any time the seas get over about eight feet it begins squeaking as the ship moves through the swells. Squeaky be getting’ it on right now as Steve went down to load the washing machine, so we know it is getting rougher. Time for Mr. Patch to visit once again.
Part Two: November 1, 2007 (0000 hours)
We have just seen Halloween out with a superior “Broadway-type” musical as the finale from the ship’s acting company, called “Do You Wanna’ Dance.” We have seen a lot of Broadway shows in our time, and the costumes, lighting, choreography of this group is second to none. The entertainment on this cruise has been excellent every night.
Following the show we enjoyed the “champagne waterfall” (with free booze for all of course) to finish the day, so it’s off to bed. Sea is very active but there is NOT ONE single breath of wind out there. It has turned hot and humid under the cloudy skies, and it is so still that the ship’s exhaust just hangs around the ship as it moves through the water. What a change from a week ago!
Finally, Kathy Young, we received your message but are out of wireless contact with the world until we dock in Charleston tomorrow. We fixed the password problem yesterday, but it is apparently back. We’ll do our best to fix it as soon as possible.
Saragossa Sea
Part One
October 31, 2007, 1400 hours
Bonjour Halloween!!
Today is our next-to-last “sea day” in which we are completely out of sight of land. What a difference 12 hours makes! We awoke this morning to 75 degree sea and air temperatures, much higher humidity, and gently rolling swells (which have been increasing all day, but more on that later). We are sitting out on our private balcony enjoying the warm sun while reading and drinking sodas. We have now covered some 3,000 miles on this voyage, and it seems like we just left Quebec City yesterday. We have seen sea and air temperatures go from right at 39 degrees F to the mid-70’s, with the 80’s promised by the time we leave the ship.
Tonight is the last “formal night” on the ship, so we will be primping later for dinner with our good friends Tim and Cindy Stockman. Other than that it is laundry day, kick back day, and of course, a four-mile run day. We (well, I can only speak for myself) have been spending WAY too much time with Jimmy (buffet), whom we introduced you all to earlier in the voyage. Jimmy just has a way of tempting bad Stevie with WAY too much in the way of porking out. So, as sort of a whining defense, whenever we are not walking on the beach, we have a rule of a “must” four mile run, which is 12 laps around the ship on the promenade deck. It was special today because of the warm sun and gentle breezes blowing across the decks. Last sea day we were running in parkas and long johns.One of the magicians on the ship (who is an excellent entertainer by-the-way) is a HUGE Harry Houdini historian and fan, so the four of us went to listen to his special Halloween Tribute to Houdini. Being a huge Houdini fan myself, I was really stoked when Tim told us about this presentation the other night. We found out a lot of amazing stuff about Houdini, including the fact that he is the first person to ever achieve manned flight in Australia (write that one down Matt Knowles!!) and is so honored by the Aussie government and people for that feat; he did die on Halloween, and although it has never been proven, highly suspect of poisoning him were a group of “Mediums” (read the fake Séance people), who Houdini waged war with and ridiculed for a number of years before his death, and although he was the most famous person on Earth at the time (150,000 people showed up in Providence, RI to see him escape from a straight jacket once – how the Hell they could all see in that crowd without T.V. and Jumbotrons beats the shit out of me) he lost his entire fortune trying to establish a motion picture company. This magician has the best Houdini artifact collection in the world, and it was really cool to hear him speak with such passion, knowing that he is a professional illusionist himself.
Big talk on the ship right now is some sort of nasty-assed hurricane that is parked off the east coast of Florida and coming out of the Caribbean, and it is supposed to be moving up this way over the next few days. We dock in Charleston tomorrow and will be inside the Bay all day, but then we are back out at sea all day Friday before we disembark in Ft. Lauderdale Saturday morning. It just may be a coincidence, but the seas have been increasing all day, and even though the wind is only Force Six, the seas are now running 12 feet. There is a squeaky handrail going down the stairs on the 8th deck (three below us), that we have nicknamed “Squeaky Rail,” and any time the seas get over about eight feet it begins squeaking as the ship moves through the swells. Squeaky be getting’ it on right now as Steve went down to load the washing machine, so we know it is getting rougher. Time for Mr. Patch to visit once again.
Part Two: November 1, 2007 (0000 hours)
We have just seen Halloween out with a superior “Broadway-type” musical as the finale from the ship’s acting company, called “Do You Wanna’ Dance.” We have seen a lot of Broadway shows in our time, and the costumes, lighting, choreography of this group is second to none. The entertainment on this cruise has been excellent every night.
Following the show we enjoyed the “champagne waterfall” (with free booze for all of course) to finish the day, so it’s off to bed. Sea is very active but there is NOT ONE single breath of wind out there. It has turned hot and humid under the cloudy skies, and it is so still that the ship’s exhaust just hangs around the ship as it moves through the water. What a change from a week ago!
Finally, Kathy Young, we received your message but are out of wireless contact with the world until we dock in Charleston tomorrow. We fixed the password problem yesterday, but it is apparently back. We’ll do our best to fix it as soon as possible.
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